Production
The show Ninja Dragon Riders was a "Frankenstein show" much like Robotech and Transformers, in which disparate existing properties were combined to create a new show. Ninja Dragon Riders comes primarily from three shows: * My Pet Ninja (私のペット忍者/Watashi no petto ninja):' A rarely seen show that through the obsession of a single animator and a complex licensing contract only ever aired in syndication. Originally drawn by an animator known only as "Gyeong," she created in her spare time a series spanning over two hundred episodes about a team of dragons who wished for pet ninjas to handle pesky dragon hunters so that they could focus on dragon things such as flying. After finishing each episode, she would project it onto her outside wall for the neighbors to see. Lawyers for Honzo, a television distribution company, argued that meant the series had already aired and was able to purchase the series at syndication rates, which were then leased to local access stations. The head producer for NDR managed to view several episodes aired out of order, and decided to use it as the basis for a show needed for a pitch meeting the following week. The production team decided that by reversing the roles (ninjas who have dragons, vs the other way around) and changing the character names, dialogue, setting, plot, and tone, the show would have better market appeal. What remained--the animation--would make up the bulk of the NDW series. * Evil Dragon Man of Evil (악의 용 사악한 남자/ag-ui yong saaghan namja): All of Zork's scenes came from the Korean series Evil Dragon Man of Evil, a series about an immortal man-dragon bent on conquering the multiverse. Each episode focused on a different hero from a different time and place attempting to destroy the unnamed Evil Dragon Man once and for all. Though the heroes were never completely successful at defeating him, they usually were able to bind him, trap him, or banish him to his own dimension temporarily. The diverse cast of heroes and settings made this an ideal show for the producers and writers to mine for adversaries for the Ninja Dragon Riders. * '''''Oh My Teacher! (Ach mein Lehrer!): Originally a German show about disgruntled and inept teachers that was meant to be a satire of Reunification Berlin era education system in which teachers with normal educational skills but vastly different cultural approaches to teaching are forced to run a school together. Footage for this show would serve as the basis for most of the Sarkanyport story arcs. The original series focused heavily on the teacher interactions, but the NDR showrunners primarily used the student-centric footage (which is why the lesson on Miss Scortch's blackboard rarely changes. * The unnamed television announcers from Sarkanyport News Nightly are the only original pieces of animation in the series. Working with three completely unrelated series initially proved a challenge for the production team, often having to rely on careful editing. For instance, when a new villain appears in Sarkanyport, often what is actually shown is a loud thud, boom, or scream, a cut to the villain standing in front of a portal, large fire, or space craft that dominates the background, and then reaction shots from the Oh My Teacher! footage. Likewise, in fights between the Ninja Dragon Riders and Zork, it would often show a hero such as Hikaru attacking and then cut to Zork either dodging or being hit, or in instances where Zork had captured someone, there would be a close-up of Zork holding someone who had been cropped out and then a cut to one of the Ninja Dragon Riders struggling. Following the success of the season 2 finale, "Great Secret" (parts 1-3), the editing team were able to afford rotoscoping lessons, which they were able to put to use starting in Movie Film 2: Ninja-ing Across Time.